People v. Deale

Judgments, Supreme Court, New York County (Robert M. Stolz, J., at controlled substance plea; Edward J. McLaughlin, *622 J., at suppression hearing, conspiracy plea and sentencing), convicting defendant, upon his pleas of guilty, of criminal possession of a controlled substance in the third degree and conspiracy in the fourth degree, and sentencing him, as a second felony drug offender previously convicted of a violent felony, to an aggregate term of six years, unanimously affirmed.

The court properly denied defendant’s suppression motion. There is no basis for disturbing the court’s credibility determinations. An officer with extensive experience in drug investigations, including numerous drug arrests at the location of defendant’s arrest, saw defendant look from side to side and immediately hand to another person a small, mostly white object, that appeared to the officer to be a glassine envelope of heroin. Although the officer was unable to be certain of this, probable cause does not require certainty, and the totality of the circumstances provided probable cause for defendant’s arrest (see People v Jones, 90 NY2d 835 [1997]; People v McRay, 51 NY2d 594, 603-604 [1980]).